At Intel’s IDF event in China, Intel is talking up its forthcoming MID-enabling technology–namely the low-power, Atom processors.
I’m quite excited to see how this market pans out, but as I’ve blogged about in the past, I see a tough road ahead for Intel and its partners in this category. The two biggest challenges? The running start of the iPhone and iPod Touch as well as the fact that Intel’s MID component is missing a strong software partner. The iPhone/iPod Touch illustrate the importance of this. For instance, not only is the iPhone well designed at the user level, one should also check out the SDK. There’s nothing on par with it.
Now some could argue that Apple isn’t an enterprise expert and so there’s room for others. Yep, but I think it’s clear that Apple’s going to keep growing into this area too. But Apple has the distinct advantage of also having the respect of many early adopters. This is going to be a big challenge for Intel.
There are a few things Intel can do. They are:
1) Get a strong software partner. I think there are only two winning choices: Microsoft or Google. Either one will work. One is needed.
2) Think even cheaper. Lowering prices will eat into revenues, but Intel is behind. It’s going to take more than low power to win here. My concern is that if Intel lowers its prices the OEMs will take the opportunity to increase their profit since numbers probably won’t be as good as they want. The workaround is for Intel to give rebates to consumers. I’m thinking of something substantial for the early buyers. Maybe $100 dollars. The amount drops would drop off after 30 days.
3) Leverage the X86 community. Give away dozens if not hundreds of devices to leading bloggers. Invite them to your conferences. Get them talking.
4) Leverage leading, online trends. For example: Encourage at least one partner (or do it yourself) to build a MID device that’s very, very good at live video streaming. Think Nokia N95 without the phone–which can get in the way and cause streams to drop anyway. Think great lens. Think great image sensor. Think good chat readability. Think good battery life better than 20-30 minutes.
